iOS 4.2 for iPad coming in November, adds wireless printing and Air Play

Apple on Wednesday showed off iOS 4.2 for the iPad, including folders, multitasking, support for wireless printing, and streaming of audio, video and photos through the new Air Play feature.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs showed off the new printing capabilities in iOS 4.2. When printing, tasks will be included in the "Print Center" icon in the multitasking bar, accessed by double tapping the Home button.

Jobs showed off the ability to include multiple icons in folders, as can be done with iOS 4 on the iPhone and iPod touch. He also showed off the multitasking capabilities that will come with the new software.

Jobs also mentioned that Air Tunes has become Air Play, which will allow users to stream audio, video and photos over Wi-Fi.

It wasn't really clear if the 4.2 update will be available for other iOS devices in November as well. He said that you'd be able to stream from your iOS device at one point and didn't specify iPad only, so I assume it will. However, he seemed to be having an off day and misspoke a few things.

Why is Apple fragmenting iOS? I thought they avoided that sort of foolishness.

Because they have to.

iPhone/iPad are somewhat different and merging the two OSs takes some time. Even more so, since the iPad was super secret, and even most members of the iPhone team didn't have access to it during development.

Yes, they could have taken their time to do the merging of the two featuresets in advance, but then, they would have delayed the iPad launch.

Oh, and it's not really fragmented from an end user perspective: apps made for iPhone can run on both, and iPhone/iPad hybrid apps are also possible.

Still, 4.2 will probably be the converging release. Who said otherwise?

Why is Apple fragmenting iOS? I thought they avoided that sort of foolishness.

Making releases monolithic increases risk of a blown schedule. My guess is that they had originally hoped that iOS 4.1 would go to the iPad but a few months ago realized it wasn't going to happen and branched it so they wouldn't risk the iPod release.

It's pretty clear the new Nano runs iOS, and I'd bet dollars to donuts the AppleTV runs iOS, but neither of them even have an app store (yet?). So Apple's just trying to minimize risk to the release schedule and product integrity.

iPhone/iPad are somewhat different and merging the two OSs takes some time. Even more so, since the iPad was super secret, and even most members of the iPhone team didn't have access to it during development.

What I'd really like out of iOS for iPad is a better way to sync files. I just find iTunes so utterly klunky. Apps that have their own wi-fi interface are great but this should be a system service, not something you have to pray a developer will include.

What I'd really like out of iOS for iPad is a better way to sync files. I just find iTunes so utterly klunky. Apps that have their own wi-fi interface are great but this should be a system service, not something you have to pray a developer will include.

Yes, when you transfer files between multiple computers, it's klunky. Waiting for apps to sync is klunky. Being unable to transfer files to any instance of iTunes other than the one you sync that single iThing to is klunky.

I want to know if the printing feature is system wide (Safari and Apps) or is it just for iWork apps only. We just got a iPad and sometimes my wife has to print out coupons from websites. Is it going to work for that or not?

I want to know if the printing feature is system wide (Safari and Apps) or is it just for iWork apps only. We just got a iPad and sometimes my wife has to print out coupons from websites. Is it going to work for that or not?

I want to know if the printing feature is system wide (Safari and Apps) or is it just for iWork apps only. We just got a iPad and sometimes my wife has to print out coupons from websites. Is it going to work for that or not?

I thought I saw an extra icon in safari near the bookmark button? Maybe printing is possible from Safari.

iPhone/iPad are somewhat different and merging the two OSs takes some time. Even more so, since the iPad was super secret, and even most members of the iPhone team didn't have access to it during development.

Yes, they could have taken their time to do the merging of the two featuresets in advance, but then, they would have delayed the iPad launch.

Oh, and it's not really fragmented from an end user perspective: apps made for iPhone can run on both, and iPhone/iPad hybrid apps are also possible.

Still, 4.2 will probably be the converging release. Who said otherwise?

Yes, when you transfer files between multiple computers, it's klunky. Waiting for apps to sync is klunky. Being unable to transfer files to any instance of iTunes other than the one you sync that single iThing to is klunky.

Totally.

If you could just simply drag and drop a couple of files instead of doing a whole nine yards sync, it would be great.

But Apple is App-centric rather than Object-centric, so that is unlikely to ever happen. The software is the central focus, not the data. You open data with an app. You don't have an app open automatically when you choose the data.

What I'd really like out of iOS for iPad is a better way to sync files. I just find iTunes so utterly klunky. Apps that have their own wi-fi interface are great but this should be a system service, not something you have to pray a developer will include.

I saw (and tweeted) that. Steve wasn't having his best day, so you could either interpret it as Steve accidentally including random features of iOS 4.1 that aren't going to be available, or accidentally including it in the list because iPad is getting a camera. I would be slightly inclined to say the latter...

Making releases monolithic increases risk of a blown schedule. My guess is that they had originally hoped that iOS 4.1 would go to the iPad but a few months ago realized it wasn't going to happen and branched it so they wouldn't risk the iPod release.

It's pretty clear the new Nano runs iOS, and I'd bet dollars to donuts the AppleTV runs iOS, but neither of them even have an app store (yet?). So Apple's just trying to minimize risk to the release schedule and product integrity.

What do you think it is then? Are you suggesting that Apple replicated most of the look and behavior of iOS in the Pixio OS? I think it's a lot more plausible that Apple is using parts of iOS to implement this, than make Pixio look like iOS and add touch screen functionality to Pixio.

I can't wait to have my iPad be upgraded with this iOS 4.2. The hundred new features and enhancement would surely make iPad the coolest gadget in the whole world. The idea is simply awesome playing your most favorite movie in your iPad and having it streamed over Wifi to your friend's Apple Tv and shown right in his living room. We just have to wait til november for this to come to reality. http://bit.ly/cdkS2R

What do you think it is then? Are you suggesting that Apple replicated most of the look and behavior of iOS in the Pixio OS? I think it's a lot more plausible that Apple is using parts of iOS to implement this, than make Pixio look like iOS and add touch screen functionality to Pixio.

Apple did do something a bit similar though by replicating the old AppleTV interface on top of the new AppleTV's iOS core. It may be more of a stopgap measure though to allow them to ship the new units right away while figuring out how best to replace the interface with something a bit more familiar to iOS users. I can't imagine what that will look like, but the new AppleTV of today really seems more like the opening salvo in something much bigger.

And let's not forget that while iOS shares its roots with MacOS X, the very lowest levels of the OS had to be rewritten and compiled for the ARM core, which has a different fundamental architecture than Intel x86/x64. It stands to reason then that Apple can choose to rewrite/recompile for any number of architectures while duplicating the look/feel of a previous architecture.